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Why we stopped building features and started building a platform

Ted Tanner
Ted Tanner
Ted Tanner
CEO and Co-Founder, Growlink

We’re putting operators in the driver’s seat with GrowlinkOS — a first-of-its-kind cultivation operating system. We’re building the best apps on it, and now operators and third-party developers can build on it too. The hardware, cultivation data, rules engine, open API and Nova AI are all there for everyone to use.

For years, cannabis cultivation software companies competed on features, and we did too. We were building features. Our competitors were copying them. They were building features. We were copying theirs. Nobody was winning.

The worst part for operators? If your facility needed a specific tool, the workflow was always the same. Submit a feature request, cross your fingers and wait for our roadmap to catch up.

We were stuck in that loop. And we knew it.

The Feature Loop — Company A builds it, Company B copies it, they build one, we copy theirs. Nobody was winning. Operators were waiting.

Then operators started showing me apps they’d built on Growlink. At a trade show, one opened a laptop and showed me a dashboard we never built, running on their own data.

That was when I knew. This is where things are going.

The feature race is over

AI changed the math. A cultivation manager with no coding background can describe what they want in plain English and have a working app in minutes. The best software companies aren’t just shipping features anymore — they’re building platforms that let everyone ship.

Operators have the data and a problem. Now they can build the fix themselves — and so can we, faster than ever.

If you run cultivation at scale, you know the pain. The report your leadership team needs is still on someone’s roadmap. Every site patches the gap with its own workaround. Your fert team keeps a spreadsheet that should be an app.

The way out isn’t to build features faster. It’s to build the operating system that makes every feature possible — for us, for you, and for anyone else with a good idea.

From vendor to platform

Apple didn’t build every app on the iPhone. They built the platform that made every app possible. Google didn’t build every Android app. Amazon didn’t build every business that runs on AWS.

The companies that win at platform scale don’t try to build everything. They build the foundation everyone else builds on.

Cultivation didn’t have that layer. Nobody had built a true, secure cultivation operating system. That’s what we’re building with GrowlinkOS.

GrowlinkOS is the full stack. It starts with the hardware you already run and the cultivation data it generates. Then it adds the rules engine, the open API, Builder and Nova AI across all of it — with enterprise-grade security at every layer. It’s all live today, and you can build on all of it.

GrowlinkOS platform stack — Open API for developers, Builder for operators, Nova AI spanning all layers, Rules engine, Cultivation data, and Hardware

We’re still building great tools — the Greenhouse Controller, Autosteer AI, TerraLink Analytics — but now we’re building them on the same platform you can build on. And the tools we ship get better because the platform underneath them keeps getting better.

Last year, I wrote that the future of cultivation is open. GrowlinkOS takes that idea all the way up the stack.

Our job is to build the best possible foundation — and the best apps on top of it — while making sure you and anyone else can build on it too.

What GrowlinkOS actually gives you

We’re building the most complete cultivation operating system — and the best apps on top of it. The best hardware. The best developer tools. The best rules engine. And now, the tools to let you build anything you need alongside us.

Growlink Greenhouse Controller App — live climate monitoring, equipment status, and weather station data Nova AI Builder — describe what you want, Nova builds it

Here’s what building looks like. Type this into Nova:

Build me a facility-wide dashboard that shows every room’s current VPD, temperature, humidity, and CO₂ in a single grid. Color-code each room green/yellow/red based on how far it is from target. Show me which rooms have active irrigation runs and flag any sensor that hasn’t reported in the last 15 minutes.

Nova builds it. Under a minute. No coding.

What’s already been built

We’ve been shipping apps on GrowlinkOS ourselves — and operators have started building their own. Here are a few examples already live on the platform.

TerraLink Sensor Analytics
Real-time substrate monitoring dashboard for TerraLink probes.
Built by Growlink
P3 Overnight Dryback
Overnight dryback analytics with auto-detected P3 windows and trend analysis.
Built by Growlink
Growlink Autosteer AI
Phase-aware crop steering dashboard with simulation mode and auto-tuned irrigation targets.
Built by Growlink

The developer opportunity

The Growlink API is open to any developer: cannabis software companies, integration firms, ag-tech startups and independent developers. Build on GrowlinkOS, and you can reach 3,900+ cultivation sites in 60 countries. A cannabis software company can put its product on top of live cultivation data. An integration firm can connect a client’s other systems without waiting on us.

If you’ve built a cultivation tool before, you know the hard part wasn’t the code. It was getting the data.

On GrowlinkOS, the data is right there. Sensor telemetry, device states, climate setpoints, irrigation history, nutrient delivery and harvest records are all live and structured. And it goes past read-only. With the operator’s permission, an app can adjust setpoints, trigger irrigation and fire alerts. Every API call is authenticated, every data access is scoped to what the operator has granted, and every action is logged.

Today, every app gets a Share ID. Send it to your other sites, or to any Growlink operator, and they can install the app in their portal.

The App Store is coming soon. The best apps from operators and developers will be available for any Growlink operator to install in one click.

That’s the flywheel. Every great app — whether we build it or you do — makes the platform more valuable for every operator on it. No single roadmap can move that fast.

Start building

We’re shipping new apps and features on GrowlinkOS every month. But now you don’t have to wait for us.

If you’re a Growlink customer on an Essential plan or higher, the Builder is already in your portal. Open it. Tell Nova what you want to build. See what comes back.

If you’re a developer, the API is open. The docs are live. Build something great.

Not on Growlink yet? Book a walkthrough, and we’ll show you what your team could build.

Start building

Book a walkthrough